Media Access : Social and Psychological Dimensions of New Technology Use

Media Access is one of the reseach volumes to look beyond the technological and cost factors that determine physical access to new media technologies to examine the more urgent social and cognitive factors influencing access to the conte

In Media Access: Social and Psychological Dimensions of New Technology Use, editors Erik P. Bucy and John E. Newhagen present the latest work, theoretical explorations, and original research findings on media access from a team of internationally renowned media and technology researchers. Chapters develop expanded definitions and conceptual understandings of access to stimulate further research, offer new perspectives on policy discussions, and facilitate media participation among those at risk of being left behind.

Broadening our understanding of information technology use, this collection offers:
*Novel perspectives--chapters demonstrate new methods of addressing persistent questions regarding motivation, cultural context, socioeconomic resources, technical knowledge, and psychological skills required for effectual use of information and communication technologies.
*Conceptual integration--each chapter addresses a vital aspect of media access and summarizes pertinent findings, weaving together results to provide much-needed integration across communication and technology studies.
*Multidisciplinary approaches--chapters represent a variety of conceptual and methodological approaches, deriving social explanations from large-scale survey data, psychological explanations from experimental data, and cultural explanations from depth interviews and ethnographic methods.
*Shifting the policy and research agenda--this volume extends and redirects aspects of the digital divide debate while elaborating the "media access" approach to studying new technology use.

Taken as a whole, Media Access reveals complications associated with full access to new communication technologies and proposes analytical frameworks that open new avenues of scholarly investigation and policy consideration. It is intended for scholars and graduate students in journalism, mass communication, telecommunications, media studies, information science, public policy, psychology, sociology, informatics, human-computer interaction, and other disciplines concerned with the issue of media access.